Werewolf Registration Day
by Grasspaw
Summary: It's that day of the year that all lycanthropes in England despise: Werewolf Registration Day. Young Nymphadora Tonks, an intern in the Auror office, has been sent down to the Werewolf Support Services to help out with the Registration, where she meets a rather interesting few werewolves. Particularly one Remus Lupin...


**Hey, everyone. I know that forever and a day ago I started writing "No Detentions for Tonks", but I don't think I'm ever really going to get back to that one, since I have now read and re-read the series and found the numerous inaccuracies and gaping plot holes in that story. But I still wanted to write about how Tonks and Remus might have met, and this idea popped into my head. She's twenty and he's thirty-three. I own nothing but the idea, and a couple of OCs.**

"Morning, Mad-Eye!" Tonks said cheerfully as she stepped into the office. The older Auror barely even looked up at her, scribbling madly on a piece of parchment.

"They need help down in Werewolf Support Services," he told her brusquely. "So I suggest you get down there."

Tonks's smile faded. "Werewolves?" she asked uncertainly, and she knew Moody's eye had just spun around in his head to look at her.

"Not scared, are you?" he asked sardonically, and she shook her head defiantly.

"I'm not scared of anything! Just... werewolves?"

"Look, kid," the man growled, "if you're gonna be an Auror, you're gonna have to deal with much worse than werewolves. Not get down there!"

Tonks skedaddled. She hopped onto the lift and forced herself to breathe evenly. It wasn't even the full moon. What did she have to be worried about? Nothing, absolutely nothing, just the fact that she was about to face a bunch of bloodthirsty monsters...

"Once a month," she told herself fiercely. "Face it, Dora, you're pretty much a bloodthirsty monster during your time of month. Cool it!"

She stepped off the lift on the fourth level, and was just about to ask the nearest person how to get to the Werewolf Support Services when she noticed the long line of people, at least forty of them. There were men and women, adults, teens and children, and most all of them were wearing second-hand robes and were desperately in need of a shower. Tonks swallowed and began walking past them.

She jumped when someone touched her elbow, and whipped around to see a man at least ten years older than herself looking at her in concern.

"What?" she snapped, trying to sound tough.

"Miss, you really don't want to cut in line. There's not much waiting for you. Is this your first time?"

She blinked, and then laughed incredulously as she understood. She pointed at the badge on her chest that read _Nymphadora Tonks, Intern Auror_.

"I'm not a werewolf," she assured him. "I was sent down here to help out."

The man shook his head. "I hope they give you some of the better ones," he said. "You'd better head on in, then," he added. "There's more of us than usual this year..."

Tonks nodded and hurried on down the line, squeezing past a scrawny, gray-haired woman who growled menacingly as Tonks pushed her way into the room.

There were several desks in the room, and at each was seated a witch or a wizard in the grey robes of the Werewolf Support Services, and across from each of them was seated a werewolf.

Tonks crossed to the desk of the only man in the room sitting at his desk alone. He looked up at her as she neared him.

"Ah, you're from the Auror office, aren't you?" he asked, sizing her up. "Moody mentioned he was sending someone down here. Have a seat at that table there, you'll be getting the decent ones."

"Decent ones?" Tonks asked anxiously, and the man smiled grimly.

"The ones that won't rip your throat out if you say their name wrong. Basically you just find their file in the folder, ask them the questions, update the information, and take a blood sample and put a drop on the appropriate square."

"Blood sample?" Tonks asked anxiously, and the man nodded sympathetically.

"It's awful, isn't it? But it's just a little prick of the finger, and believe me, they're used to much worse. Go ahead, we'll light up the sign outside to let them know there's another table open."

Tonks nodded, absently changed her hair color to crimson, and went to sit down at the table.

The first person to sit down at her table was a young women her own age, who smiled nervously.

"Wotcher," Tonks said cheerfully. "I'm Tonks, and you are?"

"Calleigh, Turner," the girl said with a noticeable French accent, and Tonks nodded, poking the tip of her tongue out of her mouth as she flipped through the files in the case before her.

"Ah, here we go! Turner... All right, Calleigh, I assume you're a year older than you were last year?"

Calleigh giggled. "Oui."

"Right, so I can check off that square... Have you, um, bitten anyone since last year?"

"A couple of rabbits," Calleigh said, shrugging. "No people, since I know that's what you mean."

"Right," Tonks said, scribbling that down. "Have you put any human-" She paused, frowning at the question. "Have you put any other people in danger during any of the past twelve transformations?"

"No," Calleigh said, shaking her head.

"Where are you currently living?"

Calleigh gave her an address.

"Do you know of any other werewolves who have not come to the registry today?"

"Fenrir Greyback," Calleigh said with a wolfish grin, and Tonks shuddered.

"Yeah, I guess that one's kind of a gimme, huh? But really, you know anyone?"

Calleigh shook her head. "I don't keep in contact with many people."

"Okay... As of last year you did not have a wand. Has that changed in the past twelve months?"

"No."

"All right then. Um, blood sample."

"You just use that little needle there," Calleigh said, nodding towards the small silver implement lying on the desk. "Just tell it to get a little blood and it will. Goes ahead and puts it on the paper, too, to save you the trouble."

Tonks nodded and said, "So, needle darling, if you'd just get a little blood from our friend Calleigh here..."

The needle wriggled, floated up, and poked Calleigh's finger, which she was holding out. A small bead of blood remained attached to the needle, and it automatically dropped said bead of blood onto the parchment with Calleigh's other notes on it. There were eight other such squares with dried blood on them, and Tonks shivered involuntarily.

"Well, that's all," she said, and Calleigh nodded and stood.

"Bye, then."

The next five people came and went, and the short meetings were much the same. No, they still didn't have a wand, no, they hadn't harmed anyone or put anyone in danger, no, they didn't know any werewolves that hadn't come today...

Tonks watched as the line slowly dwindled, then another man came over and sat at her desk. It was the same man who had warned her about cutting in line.

"Hello again," he said. "Wasn't your hair green when I was talking to you?"

"Metamorhpmagus," she said, smiling brightly. "What's your name?"

"Lupin, Remus."

"All righty then... Do dee dah do dah da doo... Here we go! Lupin!" She pulled out the file, which was noticeably thicker than the others, and when she opened it she frowned in confusion. "The questions are different," she said, puzzled. "How come?"

"I'm a bit of an anomaly in the werewolf world," Remus told her calmly. "I get my own special form."

"Works for me," Tonks said, shrugging. "All right, the dates and whatnot all look in order, on to the questions." She noticed that, while the first questions were the same she had been asking everybody, there were quite a few more attached.

"Address?"

"At this moment? I'm sort of in between houses. There's a shelter over in downtown London, but it's not really permanant."

"Okay," Tonks said hesitantly. "Do you have the address of the shelter?"

"Yes," Remus said, and rattled it off.

"Okay, um... have you placed any other people in danger during the last twelve months?"

"No, I go to an area where other people aren't and cast protective spells around to keep myself in that area," Remus said robotically, and it sounded like it was the same answer he had been giving for years.

"All right then," Tonks said, shrugging, then read the next question: "As of last year, you had a wand. Do you still have that wand?"

"Well not with me, since it's at the Front Desk waiting for me to go pick it up, but yes, I still have my wand."

"That's neat that you have a wand," Tonks said as she wrote down his answer. "You're the first one that has. Where'd you get it?"

"Ollivander's. I needed it for Hogwarts."

"You went to Hogwarts?" Tonks gasped. "That's so neat! What House were you in? I didn't know werewolves could go!"

It occurred to her that the last sentence might be taken as offensive, and indeed Remus's smile was a bit strained as he said, "I was in Gryffindor. As far as I know, I'm the first to have gone to Hogwarts. Dumbledore made an exception for me."

"I knew I liked that man," Tonks said. "Lord knows I was in his office enough to get to know him... Righto. Numbers?" She blinked, looking up at him in confusion. "Numbers? What numbers? No one else had..." Her voice died in her throat as he rolled back the left sleeve of his sweater to reveal four small, black numbers branded onto his arm.

"Oh my God," she said softly. "That's... that's _horrible_! What would they brand you for?" she demanded, then shook her head. "No, don't bother telling me, I don't really want to know. Those _gits_, branding a human being..."

"I'm not exactly a human being," Remus pointed out as she scribbled down the numbers to make sure they matched the ones printed on the page.

"Mas y menos," Tonks said dismissively. "You are most of the time."

Remus shrugged and rolled his sleeve back down.

"Have you had any contact with Severus Snape?" she read off, then cocked her head to the side. "Who in their right mind would _want _to have contact with Severus Snape? And why is that question on here?"

"I have not had any contact with Snape," Remus said evenly. "And if it's all the same to you, I would rather not answer the second question."

"Fine by me," Tonks said with a shrug. "Okay, blood sample time!" She turned the page and was surprised - and a little horrified - to see that all twenty-six squares on that page were filled up.

"Next page," Remus said, and when she turned the page she found another one just like it, this time with only two squares filled in. "I was young when I was bitten," Remus said as Tonks told the needle to prick his finger.

"Four?" Tonks asked, horrified. "You were _four_?"

"I'm afraid so," he said with a sad, bitter little smile. "Now I think I'll go collect my wand and leave. See you next year."

"I won't be here," Tonks said dazedly. "I'm in the Auror office."

"Then, Miss Tonks, I bid you _adieu_." Remus stood, gave her a half-bow, half-nod, and left the room.

"Tonks," the man at the desk called, and she looked up. "That's the last of them. You can go back to your own office now. Thanks for the help."

Tonks nodded, stood, and left. Remus was already gone.


End file.
